Welcome to the UC Santa Cruz Postdocs Association webpage!

The USPA is a postdoctoral-led organization that aims to provide career training and resources to postdoctoral scholars here at UC Santa Cruz. Each year the USPA organizes a symposium, and a series of workshops to highlight postdoctoral research, provides postdocs with career planning support, and build a stronger postdoc community.  Our goal is to create a welcoming environment for new postdocs and a supportive group of peers to navigate this pivotal career stage together.

The USPA is part of the larger network of Bay Area Postdocs.

Activities of USPA include:

  • postdoc science and social hour
  • career development workshops
  • annual symposium

Check out our upcoming events and:

Latest from USPA

Registration now open for the UCSC USPA Symposium 2021!

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We are delighted to announce that the UCSC STEAM Postdoc Symposium will take place on Tuesday May 25, 2021, and will be a virtual afternoon event. 
Registration is now OPEN, and we encourage you to do so as soon as possible: https://forms.gle/yk9r5m3qdiaWxDXN9
The last year has been a strange and challenging one, but we see this as an excellent occasion to stop and celebrate the academic and research achievements of the postdocs and graduate students at UCSC. Postdocs and graduate students from all departments are highly encouraged to submit abstracts for posters and talks. Please note that all talks and posters should be simple and clear as this is a very broad audience. The deadline for abstract submission is April 23, 2021.

Academic Job Chalk Talk Workshop II – 2021

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When: Wednesday 3/24 11am-12pm

Where: Zoom

Chalk Talk Presenter: John Dzimianski, UCSC Postdoc in Biomolecular Engineering

Description: We will briefly cover what is expected of academic tenure track job applicants in the interview chalk talk, and how this format is unique from the “job talk” seminar. Then, we will watch one UCSC postdoc who is currently on the job market deliver a practice chalk talk for a mock faculty search panel.

This event is part of a monthly virtual event series organized by the USPA. Each month, we host a workshop or seminar that either offers career development support or highlights some of the amazing research conducted by postdocs on campus. If you are interested in suggesting a workshop or presenting your research, please let us know at uspa@ucsc.edu.

Academic Job Chalk Talk Workshop I – 2021

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When: Friday 2/26 1-2 pm

Where: Zoom

Chalk Talk Presenter: Hanh Lam, UCSC Postdoc in METX

Description: We will briefly cover what is expected of academic tenure track job applicants in the interview chalk talk, and how this format is unique from the “job talk” seminar. Then, we will watch one UCSC postdoc who is currently on the job market deliver a practice chalk talk.

This is the first event in a series of chalk talk workshops featuring UCSC postdocs from different disciplines, and future events will have mock faculty search panels. For this last-minute event, we need the community’s feedback to help simulate a realistic chalk talk experience for Hanh, complete with interrupting and clarifying questions.

This event is part of a monthly virtual event series organized by the USPA. Each month, we host a workshop or seminar that either offers career development support or highlights some of the amazing research conducted by postdocs on campus. If you are interested in suggesting a workshop or presenting your research, please let us know at uspa@ucsc.edu.

USPA Monthly Virtual Event Series – Nature-inspired Modeling for Cosmology and Beyond

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Oskar Elek will be the speaker at this month’s virtual seminar. Oskar is a postdoc in the Computational Media Department and will be talking about his work on nature-inspired modeling for cosmology and beyond.

Date: Tuesday, January 26th at 1:00pm
Title: Polyphorm: Nature-inspired Modeling for Cosmology and Beyond

Summary from Oskar:
I will present my main research project called Polyphorm, which uses an algorithm inspired by the growth of Physarum polycephalum ‘slime mold’ to generate complex rhizomatic networks. Using this methodology, together with UCSC astronomers we have obtained accurate reconstructions of the Cosmic web. I will talk about these novel results, as well as the applications of the model to other domains and even for generating art.

Zoom information: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93858109040?pwd=dE1YcTN3M21qYUlWL0R6aTgzRlRSdz09
Meeting ID: 938 5810 9040
Passcode: 825718

This event is part of the new virtual event series organized by the USPA. Each month, we will host a workshop or seminar that either offers career development support or highlights some amazing research conducted by postdocs on campus.
If you are interested in presenting, please sign up here: https://forms.gle/221yYehcRJ5HXYWb6

From Oskar Elek's homepage: https://cgg.mff.cuni.cz/~oskar/research.html#BurchettElek2020

Three-dimensional map of the underlying cosmic web’s intricate filamentary network from data containing the positions of 37,000 galaxies.